[2] The Minneapolis Marines were the first Minnesota-based team to join the National Football League, predating the Duluth Eskimos (1923) and Minnesota Vikings (1961).

[2] Early on, the Marines baseball and football teams featured working-class teenagers,[1] mostly first-generation Scandinavian-Americans from the Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis neighborhood.

[2] During this sandlot period from 1905 to 1909, six players who joined the Marines would later play in the National Football League, including Dutch Gaustad, Walt Buland, Sheepy Redeen, Reuben Ursella, Charles Jonasen, and Mike Palmer.

The Marines sold tickets and operated professionally as a cooperative and they outscored opponents 293 to 37, but still they finished second to the Beavers and missed out on playing the inaugural Thanksgiving Day matchup between the best independent team in the city versus the Minnesota All-Stars, an exhibition team rostered with mostly former University of Minnesota Gophers players.

[1] But then before a game against the Adams Athletic Club of Duluth, Minnesota, Hammer recruited former Gophers phenom Bobby Marshall to play for the Marines.

The Marines beat the Adams team and the Beavers twice and earned the title Minnesota Champions and the opportunity to play the All-Stars on Thanksgiving Day.

Three more future NFL players joined the team, including Harry Gunderson, Art Sampson, and Eddie Novak.

John Dunn, who had taken over management of the Marines in 1915, joined the Minnesota National Guard, but still he attempted to field a team.

[2] The men who departed the Marines for the Independents in 1919 included Reuben Ursella, Walt Buland, Fred Chicken, Dewey Lyle, Bobby Marshall, and Eddie Novak.

Six new future NFL players joined the team, including Rudy Tersch, Larry "Sox" Erickson, John Norbeck, Oscar "Bully" Christianson, Ainer Cleve, Harold D. Hanson, and Frank Jordan.

[2] In 1920, John Dunn decided to stop playing and instead focus on managing the team, and in 1921, he sought to join a new western professional league based in Omaha, Nebraska.

As a result, John Dunn tried to drum up support to move the team to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1925, but that effort failed.

[2] In 1926, John Dunn and Val Ness teamed up with boxing promoter Jack Reddy in an effort to revive the NFL franchise under a new name, the Twin City Lumberjacks.

When the group failed to pay the NFL franchise fee for the 1926 season, reportedly because Brandy pulled out of the deal, the effort fell apart.

The Marines hosted Red Grange and his New York Yankees NFL franchise in 1927, and in 1928, John Dunn revived the Marines as a vehicle to feature former Gophers standout Herb Joesting who, despite finishing his college career setting new school rushing records of 1,850 career yards and 23 touchdowns, received disappointing offers from professional football teams.

[2] In late May 1928, Herb Joesting announced he would captain and manage an entrant in the NFL with former Gophers player Ken Haycraft as his assistant.

[2] Outside of Joesting, the most accoladed player to join the Red Jackets was Hal Erickson, who had played in two Rose Bowl games and later for the Milwaukee Badgers and Chicago Cardinals.

[2] The Red Jackets practiced at the Parade Grounds, the future home of Parade Stadium, and at some point during the season, Joesting sought out Sigmund Harris, who had worked as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota for 22 years, to assist with coaching the Red Jackets.

[1] After a loss to the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field on November 2, and after the Frankford Yellow Jackets lost to the Chicago Cardinals at Comiskey Park that same day, Dunn sold most of his franchise's player contracts to Frankford and sold three player contracts to the Green Bay Packers.

The team's name paid homage the 151st Field Artillery Regiment from Minnesota, which had fought valiantly in the 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division during World War I.

[2] By 1927, the Dunn family had started spending their summers at Clef Camp,[2] a resort on Lake Pokegama southwest of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.